I'd like to share with you what God is teaching me, not just some passage that I pick out of my nose. It's something God is working in my life because it's real to me and it's something that God is convicting me about. I have a a lot of examples, but I have this buddy who's really struggling with detail. He lost his son. He lost his son in a car accident many years ago, but I came into his life later on, and I noticed that his marriage is on the rocks, and so I try to encourage him, and, hey, just do this, do this, do this. The Bible says this, the Bible says that. He has an eating disorder, so he just sits in front of the TV and he'll just eat a whole bag of chips or eat everything that's on a platter. Even if he comes to my house and we have a bunch of guys there or whatever, he'll just keep just grabbing stuff and eating it. He doesn't stop. He'll eat the whole bowl full of M&Ms or whatever. And needless to say, it's a little bit aggravating maybe, and I just want to just choke him and say, you know, stop eating, you know, just, just get over it, you know, and, and he just puts his head down. I know, Walt, I know. And his wife really is angry with him because he just won't stop. He's not grossly overweight. He just has this disorder and, and it's depression. And, and, um, he's been going through it for years. And every time, like we mentioned, a prayer request about somebody who has lost a child or somebody whose child is sick or something, I can look over at Mike and just tears are coming down his eyes, his cheeks. Every time anything's mentioned about his son or somebody else's child, tears come down his cheek. And one day, Here I am trying to encourage him. Here I am trying to help him. I'll give him Bible verses and say, hey, just do this. Hey, Mike, just do this. Stop eating so much. Your marriage is falling apart. Your wife is angry with you. And he just puts his head down and says, yeah, I know. I should. I should do that. Yeah. And finally, one day, and I remember the exact spot, we were driving together down the road. And I went to say something and the Lord just put his hand on my lips and said, Walter, you have no clue. Walter, you have no clue what this man is going through and what baggage he's carrying in his life. And that broke me and it brought me to tears because I was merciless to him. I wasn't treating him the way he needed to be treated. loving him the way he needed to be loved. I thought I had all the answers. I'll just give him these answers. I'll take some Bible verses and just throw them at him. And surely that will fix him and fix his marriage and fix his situation. I have no clue, none, of what people are going through in life. And so the Lord has put this on my heart. He brought example after example into my life of people who are suffering terribly around us. And perhaps some of you today are suffering. You're carrying hurts and baggage on your shoulders that your spouse doesn't understand, that your children don't understand, or perhaps you're involved in people's lives that are the same way. that you're thinking, if they would only do this, then they would be fixed. And you go back, and you talk to your husband and wife about it, and say, oh, isn't Bill that way? Bill is this way, and Bill is that way. And if only he would do this, then all his problems would be fixed. Jane and I were going through a bus station in Michigan one day, and as we were crossing the street in front of the bus station, and the Lord put it on my heart and said, Walter, go back and share my love with that girl sitting on the bus station seat. And I'm like, well, Lord, I'm going this way. And the Lord put it on my heart and said, Walter, you know, I really want you to go share Jesus Christ with that girl sitting on the seat at the bus station. And I'm like, but Lord, I'm going this way. I'm already past the bus station. And Lord said, I'm not going to tell you a third time. OK, I've learned. You don't push the Lord past three times. Someday when you read my obituary, it'll probably be because Walter pushed the Lord three times. You know, we went back, and all I did, Jane and I sat down next to this girl, and she's just sitting there waiting for the bus, and I said to her, I said, you know, God has sent me back here to talk to you, and do you have a relationship with God? I don't know the exact words. Do you know today that if you were to pass away, that you'd be with the Lord in heaven? And she just started crying, just crying, just tears pouring down her face. I only said one line. But see, that's where she was at. She was at that breaking point of hurt and baggage that she has been carrying on. God sees this. That's his little girl. His little girl is suffering terribly, and he's looking throughout the world to see who is willing to go and help. Who is willing? What other of my sons and my daughters are willing to open their mouth and just say, how are you today? How's it going? How's work? How do you like this place? How do you like working here? All the people that you and I come in contact with day in and day out, perhaps, perhaps God has brought them into your life. That the two of you have come together in this one spot at this one time so that you might minister in their life. and show mercy to this little girl, this little boy, this older man, this older woman, whoever who had just lost maybe a spouse after 50 years of marriage, we don't know. Mercy. Let's ask the Lord to bless us. Lord, we pray that your blessings of peace, your blessings of understanding will be upon us as we look at your word this morning. We love you, Lord. Amen. So why should we be merciful? Why should we show mercy? Number one reason, because God is merciful. And in Psalm 103 verse eight, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. We should be merciful because our Father in heaven's example to us that he is merciful and he is merciful to us. And one of the first pictures we see of God's mercy is found in the book of, not one of the first, because there's many before this, but really one of the major building blocks of mercy is shown in the book of Exodus. Because God tells Moses, I want you to build. a tabernacle, a place of meeting, where I can meet with you. And so he builds this, and he gives Moses this vision, he brings Moses up in the mountain, he says, this is what I want you to do, build this tabernacle. It's like a portable church, and it has curtains, and it's covered with animal skins, and there's a holy place, and then there's a most holy place behind this gigantic curtain. And behind this gigantic curtain that man can't go behind is called the Ark of the Covenant. And God tells Moses to make this ark, it's a wooden box, Arcadia wood, and it's covered with gold. And it's about a foot and a half, I mean, it's about 24 inches wide, so it's about 24 inches, two feet wide, a little over two feet wide, and it's about four feet long, and it has a gold cover. And do you know what the cover's called? Does anybody? The seat of mercy, right? It's the mercy seat. And he says to Moses, this is where I am going to meet with you. And so he builds the Ark of the Covenant, he puts it behind this curtain, and once a year the high priest was allowed to go behind this curtain to meet with God face to face. Now, we didn't see God's face, but his Shekinah glory was there, which was just God's light. And it was two cherubim, and their heads were down over this mercy seat, and their wings were spread out. And this place of mercy and God's light, the Shekinah glory was within those cherubs, so that when the high priest would walk in, this light of God was there. And the high priest would take blood, that was on hyssop branches, which is just a shrub that grows in the Middle East, and he would take blood from the sacrifice, dip it in the hyssop branch and sprinkle it on the mercy seed. When God would see the blood of the sacrifice, mercy would be extended to the Jews, to the Israelites for one year. And this was going to be carried on until the final Sacrifice came, and that was Jesus Christ, and his blood was given once and for all. But what we see in this picture is God's mercy, that God was separated from his people, and he wants to have a face-to-face relationship with us because of his mercy, because of his grace, because of his love. The mercy seat. This is where we can go to receive God's mercy. When Jesus Christ hung on the cross that day, the Bible says a very interesting thing. He says the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom. And this curtain was the breadth of a man's hand. So it was approximately five to six inches thick. It was 60 feet by 30 feet. This could not been done in any other way except the power of God ripping this curtain from top to bottom. And it was what that picture was when Christ died and said, it is finished, that curtain tore from top to bottom. And what that was, was the God opening up the presence of himself to mankind. Finally, he could have a face-to-face relationship with you and I, without us dying. Because Jesus Christ paid on that cross that day, he paid all our sin, all our debt was paid for. allowing us now, because of his mercy, to come into the presence of God face to face. This is why the scriptures say we can come boldly before the throne of grace. As a child of God, you can walk into the throne room of God and all heavenly creatures move out of the way. All the created beings have to move out of the way. As you walk into the presence of God now in prayer, you're a child of God. You're in direct line of inheritance because of what Jesus did. And the Lord will turn to you and say, how can I help you? Lord, I need this. As you go in prayer and you're praying for those around you, you're praying for yourself. You're praying for the church. This is God's mercy, for the Mighty One has done great things for me. And holy is His name, it says in Luke 1, 49 and 50. And mercy is upon generation after generation to those who fear Him. So why do we show mercy? Because God is merciful. Why should we show mercy? Here's another reason. Because we were shown mercy that day. There's a story that was read about the Good Samaritan. We see a priest coming down the road. He sees this naked man who's beat, and it says that he was naked, and he was totally beat up, and he obviously couldn't help himself. And the priest saw this, the holy man of God saw this, and he went on the other side of the road and passed on. And he was a Levite. And then the second passage, because that's who the priests were in those days, and the second passage, another Levite comes along. And he sees this man bleeding, suffering, and he goes to the other side of the road and he passes on. And then the Samaritans, the hated Samaritans, the Jews hated the Samaritans. They were half-breeds. And so when Jesus uses this as an example, all the people who are listening to this example and this story, they kind of recoil and say, oh, disgusting. A Samaritan? Really? You're talking about something good about a Samaritan? And he comes along, and what's he do? He helps this man. He anoints him with wine and oil. He puts him on his own beast. And he brings him, and he pays him a couple hundred dollars. two denarii, which is approximately a couple hundred dollars in today's wage. And he says, take care of this man. And if he owes you anything, I'll pay it when I come back through. And the question was brought up, you know, on the table. Who do you think was the merciful one? Who do you think was his brother? And the logical answer is the one that helped him, the one that showed mercy on him, the Samaritan. So that's our example. And this lawyer had to admit it's the one who showed mercy. And Jesus says, go and do likewise. This is what God has called us to do. Instead of being judging of those people that we see on TV, all those horrible acts, you know, just this past month, I went to a church and there was a couple ladies there. In fact, there was an entire family there. And I know the entire family. I've done Bible studies in their homes in the past. But one of the men of that particular family was arrested because he's a pedophile. He was raping his daughter for years, his non-biological daughter. And all the while I'm teaching a Bible study in their home, to this man, he is sexually abusing his stepdaughter. Finally, everything comes out. Everything's found out about the family is destroyed. He goes to prison. He's, he's serving, uh, 12 to 20 right now in prison in Gardner, Massachusetts. He's a good friend of mine. And, um, so I. Fulfill what I believe God has called me to do in Matthew 25, where it says, and when I was in prison, you visited me and the righteous is going to say, Lord, when did we see you in prison and visit you? And he's going to say, and as much as you've done it to these, at least of my brethren, you've done it to me. And I'll tell you, this guy, Bob, is the least of his brethren in the eyes of the world. He's a pedophile. There's nothing lower than that in the prison system. Nothing. He deserves nothing but death according to the world. Right? I mean, we all shake our head. We understand the seriousness of that. Destroying this little girl's life, destroying his family, and destroying his own life. But God has called me to visit him in prison, so I've been visiting him in prison. And a few weeks ago, I'm in a church, and this family is in this church. And I walk in, and the daughter is there, who I know very well, and the brothers, and the mother-in-law, and the mom of the daughter. And I'm shaking hands with them, and smiling, and talking with them. But the mother and the grandmother just gave me evil eyes. I mean, if looks could kill, you've heard that expression, I'd be dead 10 times over because I visited this horrible guy in prison. And they were so angry with me that one of the daughters actually called me the next week and said, Walter, I want to apologize how my sister and my mom treated you. And I said, that's OK, I understand. They hate the fact that I would show mercy to this man in prison. I don't condone what he did. I don't in any way, I know the seriousness of what he did. But God has called me not to judge him. God has called me to show mercy. I don't know what that looks like, my friends. I'm learning too. How do you show mercy to somebody who's so despicable in your heart and mind? The worst thing that you can possibly think about. How can you show mercy to those people? I don't know. I don't know the answers, except that maybe the spirit of God pouring in and through in my life, somehow I can visit him in prison. Somehow I can pray with him, do a Bible study with him while he's in prison. and at the same time, hate every fiber of his body. It's God. We can't do this on our own. We can show mercy because mercy has been shown to us. By the grace of God, there go I. You've heard that saying before. By God's grace? If it wasn't for God's grace putting me in the right place at the right time and keeping me protected, couldn't I be that way? Absolutely yes. There is no sin under the sun which you and I cannot commit, none. There is no sin under the sun which you and I cannot commit under the right circumstances. No matter how gross, how horrible you think it is. And the second you say, I would never do that, be careful. Because God would love to show you that yes, you can. Not to hurt you, but to show you to be merciful to others. Ephesians 2, we read a little bit of that earlier. Oh, before that, Titus 3, we're reminded. In Titus 3, Paul is reminding Titus, he says, remind them to be submissive to rulers, authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, be gentle, to show perfect courtesy toward all people. And he goes on this entire list. He says, because you were once foolish, disobedient. You were led astray. You were slaves to various passions and pleasures. But then God, according to his own mercy, by the washing and regeneration of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, We were once that way. We can still be that way. But according to God's mercy, it says in Titus 3, by the washing and the regeneration and the renewal through the power of the Holy Spirit, this is how your life can change. But you need to go before the Lord and say, Lord, I need this. I need to be a man of God or a woman of God that shows mercy to those who need it. And everyone around us needs it. And you and I have no clue of the people that we rub shoulders with every single day, people at work, people at our job situations, people that we hire to come and work on our home, whatever the situation, we have no clue what they're going through. In Ephesians 2, he says, but God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What an unbelievable promise. Unbelievable place that God has given us. We were dead in our transgressions. We deserve death. We deserve eternal damnation. We deserve help. That's what we deserve. Whether you believe it or not, the scriptures teach it. You deserve to go to hell. But God, in his love and grace and mercy, he was rich in mercy, as it says in Ephesians 2. In this great love, he raised us up together in Christ Jesus and seated us in heavenly places. That's your position right now. You've been seated in heavenly places as a child of God because of what Jesus Christ did for us and his kindness towards us so that when we understand what we deserved and what we received, we need to be merciful to those around us. We were born again to a living hope, it says in 1 Peter 3 and 4. Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy. You see that over and over through the scriptures. Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead. To an inheritance and an imperishable, undefiled, unfading, and it's kept in heaven for you. even though we deserved hell and damnation, He has raised us up, and He has caused us to be born again. So for those of you who walk around with a chip on your shoulder thinking that you're special, and that you somehow deserve salvation because your good works, and see, I give money to the poor, and I pat people on the head, and I take care of animals, and I go to church every Sunday, so therefore God, of course should bless me. And that's not what the scriptures teach. He did it out of his great mercy. He reached down and looked at you and looked at your name and said, I want you. I don't fully understand that, but we see it in the scriptures. God knows what it feels like to be treated without mercy. God knows what it feels like to be treated without mercy. Jack Wellman, a writer, states, he says, there is only one time in all of history where God was unfair. Let that sink in for a second. There was one time in all of history where God was unfair. God was merciless on the innocent Christ while pouring out his mercy on those who were guilty. So here it was, himself, Jesus Christ, God, the Son, and God the Father for the first time in all of eternity and the last was unfair. He was merciless. That's crazy, isn't it, to think about that? Because he poured out the wrath that you and I all deserve, and he put it on Jesus Christ. This innocent person who sinned, not. He had no sin. He didn't deserve to die. His father was God the Father and his mother was Mary. Sin comes through the line of the Father. So Jesus had no sin. It had to be done this way so we could have the perfect sacrifice for us. So here was this man, Jesus Christ, who should have never died because he was never under the penalty of sin. And God looked at him, took his eyes from him, because Jesus Christ said, Father, let all their sins come upon me. And he took his sins on himself that day. And the father turned away. Why show mercy? Because God is merciful. and he's called us to be merciful. We are told to show mercy as Christians, and that's how we as Christians should act. And you all know the story of the kingdom of heaven, what it can be compared to, as it says in Matthew 18. And Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? How many people have sinned against you? through your life. You can all probably think of somebody that has hurt you terribly. Are you carrying those sins around with you still? Are you still under the bondage of those things that have happened to you 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago? I just met with a friend of mine two mornings ago. And a co-worker falsely accused him of saying that he was going to bring a gun to work and shoot his boss. And this friend of mine is the most gentle, kind. a caring, compassionate man you would know. For many years, he spent on the mission field in Florida with an organization down there. I've known him since he was born again, since he was a little baby, just a young man. When I helped bring him to Christ many, many years ago, he's like a son to me. I love this man. He is two years away from retirement. And three of his co-workers just accused him that he was going to bring a gun to work and kill his boss. So needless to say, they called him in the office a few weeks ago. They said, give us your badge, give us your security clearance, give us your keys, you're done. And I met with him for breakfast on Friday morning, not Friday morning, Thursday morning. And he just says, I just don't understand. He said, I'm two years away from retirement. He said, I don't even own a gun. I don't even have a gun. I don't even have a gun license. And we know, him and I, without a shadow of a doubt, it was because of his Christian testimony. He was a godly young man. He was young to me. He's a godly man. He loves the Lord. And so I said to him, you now have a choice. What are you going to do with this? Those three guys that accused you falsely, are you going to carry it around on your shoulders the rest of your life? Are you going to be angry? No matter how this turns out, are you going to be angry with them for doing this? He said, Walter, I'm past that. He says, I understand that God has allowed this to happen for some reason. I don't understand why. He says, I just hate the fact that my boss and those guys around think ill of me. He says, that hurts me to think that they would think ill of me. He says, because I've always tried to be a good witness. What are you carrying around in your life? Unforgiveness? You haven't forgiven those who have struck out against you? You're not showing mercy. How about those you've hurt? Peter came up to him and said, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? And as many as seven times? That sounds like a good number. And Jesus said to him, I do not say you seven times, but seven times 70. Most of us would go, 490, 490 times, okay, I only have to forgive him 490 times. That's not what the Lord meant. It's like, no, we just keep forgiving and forgiving and forgiving. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. So this is the kingdom of heaven, but Jesus has given us a picture. This is how God deals with us. So he began to settle one, and one guy was brought before him who owed him 10,000 talents. And since he could not pay his master, he ordered him to be sold, and his wife and his children, all that he had, so a payment would be made. So there's this gentleman that owes him about $125 billion. I did the math. My calculator didn't have that many zeros, but I guesstimated at the price of what gold is, a talent of gold and everything. So it's about $125 billion. In other words, it was unpayable. All right? calls in the servant, says, you owe me $125 billion. And he fell on his knees, imploring him, saying, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him his debt. But when that same went out, that same man, and he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, which is about $8,000, he seized him and began choking him saying, pay what you owe. So his fellow servant fell and pleaded with him, have patience with me and I will pay you. But he refused and he went and put him in prison until he should pay all his debt. And when his fellow servants saw this, everybody else that saw the situation, what had taken place, they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said, you wicked servant, I forgave you all of your debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have done the same thing and shown mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? And he angered his master and the master delivered him to the jailers until they should pay his debt, until he paid his debt. So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. That's pretty strong. We are called to forgive and forget, to have mercy on those around us. I know you can't forget everything, but you can forgive to the extent where that's not in the forefront of your heart and mind all the time. You're not carrying that burden of unforgiveness in your life. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Why should we show mercy? Because God is merciful. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace and help in the time of need. Why should we show mercy? Because we have been shown mercy. As it says in Titus 3, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us. Not because of works done by our righteousness, but according to his own mercy. And thirdly, in conclusion, why should we show mercy? Because we are told that as Christians, this is how we should act. In Romans 12, one says, therefore I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, I urge you, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is true and proper worship. As we offer our bodies, as we desire to go and visit those in prison and offer mercy, offer grace to those who have hurt others or struck out against us, As we feed the hungry and stop complaining the fact that they're lazy, no good bums. It's easy for us to do. We give water to the thirsty. We clothe the naked. As we visit those who are sick, infirmed. This is how we as Christians should show mercy. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this time. Help us to go out from here today and be instruments of mercy as you have shown us mercy. And may you be glorified through the word, as it says there on the front of the bulletin, that your word does not return void without it accomplishing what you've sent it to do. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to open up your word this morning. We pray that you've been glorified and you will continue to be glorified through our lives as we walk in Christ Jesus. Amen. Thank you.